US 19E was born in 1930 as a renumbering of US 19. US 19E followed SR 1454 Cane River Middle School Rd to about Riverside. US 19E likely used SRs 1195 and 1196 to zig zag over to Main St Burnsville.
US 19 used SR 1428 Main St through town, then some US 19E. It used Old US 19E to Windom. Past there US 19E used today's US 19E until Micaville, where it used SR 1186 and a little NC 80 and SR 1424. East of there, 19E picked up US 19E again, plus several short loops of old highway to Mitchell County.
US 19E followed US 19E in Mitchell county except for a brief Old US 19E east of Eastatoe over to Spruce Pine. US 19E used Greenwood Rd then NC 226 to cross North Toe River, then Oak St and Cabin road to continue east. US 19 then used essentially US 19E all the way to Tennessee.

US 19 through Spruce Pine

US 19E is born

Commercial maps from 1935-37 showed US 19E renumbered as US 19-A. However, Official maps from 1935, 1936 and 1938 all show US 19E remaining in force.
Between 1937-44, US 19E was removed from Cabin Rd east of Spruce Pine.
In 1960, US 19E was placed on its modern routing in the Eastatoe area.
In 1962, US 19E was placed on its modern routing through Micaville and Newdale.
Between 1963-68, US 19E was placed on its modern routing around Burnsville and Windom.

US 19E through Burnsville

US 19E bypasses Burnsville

In 1978, US 19E received its current routing skirting the south side of Spruce Pine.

US 19E through Spruce Pine

US 19E bypasses Spruce Pine

In 1984, US 19E was extended south slightly to the current US 19/19W junction as new construction, leaving behind SR 1454. This replaced a little bit of US 19.

US 19E south end (1930-1984)

US 19E south end (since 1984)

Comments:

US 19E should really just be US 19.
I drove all of US 19E once but it was in the middle of the night in 1988 so I don't have any real memory of the route.